South Korea’s second-largest mobile operator, KT, is planning to showcase pre-standard 5G trials at PyeongChang Winter Olympics to be held in February 9-25, 2018.

The Local Ministry of Science and ICT along with three major mobile operators of Korea: SK Telecom, KT Corp, and LG U+, have slated to commercialize the 5G technology by early 2019.

Consequently, KT has very tactfully placed an exhibition hall equipped with 5G technology, located at Gangneung Olympic Park. In the opening ceremony of the hall, KT’s Chairman, Hwang Chang-gyu said, “The 5G Exhibition Hall, operated by KT during the PyeongChang Olympics, will serve as an opportunity to experience a 5G future in advance,”.

“With partners such as Intel and Samsung Electronics, KT will make all efforts not only to provide the world’s first 5G trial service in PyeongChang, but also to commercialize the world’s first 5G services.” A data transmission speed that is 100 times of what the current networks are providing is expected from this 5G network as well.

A sync view gives the audience a mesmerizing 3D live performances from a bobsledder’s viewpoint. Time slice is a 5G enabled video streaming technology that allows functions like time, target and angle to be adjusted according to viewer’s wish. For a live visual experience of Olympic matches, 360- degree VR is put on service and with omni-point service, real-time access of certain things (such as athlete’s ranking) will be provided to the viewers.

For this, around 28GHz systems are being implanted in Gangneung, PyeongChang, Jeongseon and Bokwang and a limited access within Seoul.

A corpus of more than $9.36 billion is said to be invested in 5G technology by mobile operators of Korea in the year 2018. With a 3.5 GHz spectrum gamut for urban and rural residents of the country, KT has smartly envisioned to place use cases such as smart cities, 4K/8K cameras, remote medical services, drones, smart factories and public safety.

South Korea as a country has taken a lead in developing an ecosystem for 5G technology. The country was also the first one to have a high 4G network. South Korea is planning to conduct an auction of 5G spectrum later this year. SK Telecom has also conducted a number of trials to demonstrate its readiness for 5G.

At the same time the technology is not yet standardized and full scale 5G commercial networks are likely to be operational only by 2020.